Graham man fingered in international drug cartel crackdown

By Times-News

Published: Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 05:00 PM.

No Quarter has spanned 10 years and five N.C. counties, the release said. More than 100 people have been charged in North Carolina’s 44-county eastern district, and more than $1.5 million in currency, more than $4.6 million in drugs, along with firearms and real property have been seized by law enforcement in the operation.

A Graham man was one of three people sentenced to federal prison Wednesday out of a drug trafficking sting in eastern North Carolina.

Manuel Ricardo Reyes-Flores, 65, was sentenced to 12 years six months in prison followed by five years of supervised release by a judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina U.S. District Court. He must also pay a $5,000 fine.

On April 1, 2012, federal, state and local agents seized more than 5 kilograms of methamphetamine that Reyes-Flores and Ricardo Salvador Flores-Carrasco, 40, of Mesa, Arizona, were transporting from Arizona into Greenville.

“Additional investigation revealed that Reyes-Flores was also responsible for trafficking an additional 283 grams of methamphetamine, 181 kilograms of marijuana and 5 kilograms of cocaine in North Carolina,” said a release from U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker’s office.

The arrest was part of operation No Quarter by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, divisions of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, the Internal Revenue Service and numerous state and local law enforcement agencies around the country. No Quarter is intended to target Mexican drug cartels in North Carolina, the U.S. and Mexico.

Flores-Carrasco was sentenced to 102 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release.

Additionally, Bobby Kemoni Latrae Wallace, 26, of Grifton, was sentenced to 36 months in prison and three years’ supervised release. Wallace was charged with selling 290 grams of cocaine to undercover officers in March and April 2010.

No Quarter has spanned 10 years and five N.C. counties, the release said. More than 100 people have been charged in North Carolina’s 44-county eastern district, and more than $1.5 million in currency, more than $4.6 million in drugs, along with firearms and real property have been seized by law enforcement in the operation.